Centre moves SC against NGT ban on 10-year-old diesel vehicles in the NCR

New Delhi: The Centre moved the Supreme Court on Friday challenging the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) decision to ban diesel vehicles that are older than 10 years in the national capital region (NCR).

In April 2015, the green tribunal had ruled against the use of diesel vehicles older than 10 years in a bid to curb air pollution in the capital.

In July 2016 after complaints of non-implementation of the tribunal’s orders, the NGT had directed Delhi government’s transport department to deregister diesel vehicles that are more than 10 years old. The court had later held that the process of deregistration would begin with scrapping 15-year-old diesel vehicles.

The tribunal’s orders were in spite of repeated pleas from the Union ministry of heavy industry and public enterprises against such a move.

The government had suggested to the tribunal that instead of banning old diesel vehicles, it must consider bigger causes of pollution such as crop burning and road dust.

As of 2014, Delhi had 8.9 million registered passenger vehicles. Of these, there are around 220,000 diesel passenger vehicles and 170,000 commercial vehicles that are over 10 years old, according to industry estimates.